David, I purchased my pond & land about 6 years ago, and your story sounds similar to mine in that the pond seemed to have a natural balance. I was told that the pond was stocked with smallies back in the '70s. When I bought the pond, it had LMB, Crappie, Bluegill, Bullheads, perch, as well as suckers. My pond is also fed by a stream inlet and outlet.
The biggest LMB that I've seen caught was about 5 lbs. I've seen numerous bass of this size in the pond also.
Now I believe that if you have a good LMB population, that the LMB will eat the bullheads, but won't eradicate them. I don't feel like my pond was "overrun" with bullheads.
In the last year or so, I've been doing some stocking with additional LMB, SMB, perch, bluegill, some channel cats, a few HSB, and some trout. I've also put in a 100+ lbs of shiners and roughly the same of fatheads. I also put in about 8,000 crayfish.
Whatever I've done, I feel that I have altered the natural balance that the pond may have had 6 years ago. But I also believe that ponds go through cycles. My pond is in the 6 acre range and is more than 50 years old from what I've been told.
Fishing this year was not that great, but then again, I did not get to spend as much time at my pond this past summer as my wife and I were expecting a baby.
